On what should have been a routine mission to the star system of 61 Cygni A, Delia Kemp finds herself shunted thousands of light years into uncharted space. The only survivor of a catastrophic starship blow-out, Delia manages to land her life-raft on the inhospitable, ice-bound world of Valinda, and is captured by a race of hostile aliens, the Skelt. What follows is a break-neck adventure as Delia escapes, fleeing through a phantasmagorical landscape. As the long winter comes to an end and the short, blistering summer approaches, the Skelt will stop at nothing to obtain Delia’s technical knowledge – but what Delia wants is impossible: to leave Valinda and return to Earth.

Stranded on a hostile alien world thousands of light years from Earth, Delia Kent has no hope of ever seeing her homeworld again... and little chance of surviving the attentions of the evil locust-like aliens known as the Skelt. Having escaped from the Skelt and made her way halfway across the planet to meet up with other survivors from Earth, now she and her companions – accompanied by a friendly chimpanzee-like alien and a giant spider-crab – face a death-defying dash across the planet’s inimical equator to the valley of Mahkanda... where salvation just might be waiting.